TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - One of the persons close to Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok, Nathanael Ompusunggu, said that the former Jakarta Governor is planning to take a Christmas remission. The deduction of the detention period is in accordance with Presidential Decree No. 174/1999 (2) concerning the granting of special and general remissions.
Nathanael, who served as Ahok’s staff at the Jakarta City Hall, said that if Ahok takes the Christmas remission, he would be released from the Salemba Prison of Mako Brimob in January 2019. “The sentence period is reduced by the remission earned,” Nathanael said on Wednesday, July 25.
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Previously, a rumor said that Ahok had refused to take the remission of August 17, Independence Day. Ahok’s younger sister, Fifi Lety Indra, said his brother chose to wait for the original release which is expected to be in April 2019.
However, Ahok's sister did not say much when Tempo reconfirmed this rumor. “I will post [the news] in August after we received the confirmation of the certainty over how many months the remission is,” she said via a short message, Wednesday, July 25.
Ahok is put behind bars in Salemba Prison of Mako Brimob after the North Jakarta District Court convicted him to be guilty of religious defamation. The judges convicted Ahok of 2 years in prison on May 9, 2017.
INSAN QURANI
